This disclosure relates to catheters such as feeding tubes and their placement in the body of a patient.
Numerous situations exist in which a body cavity needs to be catheterized to achieve a desired medical goal. One relatively common situation is to provide nutritional solutions or medicines directly into the stomach or intestines. A stoma is formed in the stomach or intestinal wall and a catheter is placed through the stoma. This surgical opening and/or the procedure to create the opening is commonly referred to as “gastrostomy”. Feeding solutions can be injected through the catheter to provide nutrients directly to the stomach or intestines (known as enteral feeding). A variety of different catheters intended for enteral feeding have been developed over the years, including some having a “low profile” relative to the portion of the catheter which sits on a patient's skin, as well as those having the more traditional or non-low profile configuration. These percutaneous transconduit catheters (sometimes referred to as “percutaneous transconduit tubes”) are frequently referred to as “gastrostomy catheters”, “percutaneous gastrostomy catheters”, “PEG catheters” or “enteral feeding catheters”. U.S. Pat. No. 6,019,746 for a “Low Profile Balloon Feeding Device” issued to Picha et al. on Feb. 1, 2000, provides an example of one device.
These catheters are frequently placed in a procedure called percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy (frequently referred to as PEG). Traditionally, a PEG tube is placed using endoscopic guidance or x-ray guidance. In a conventional PEG procedure that places a PEG tube into a patient's stomach, an endoscope is used to observe that the patient's esophagus is unobstructed and to inspect and inflate the stomach to see that the area selected for the gastrostomy can be distended.
If the location is suitable, this spot is selected. Prior to placement of any feeding tube, it has been found that it is useful to anchor the anterior wall of the gastric lumen (e.g., the stomach) to the abdominal wall as a step prior to creating the stoma tract through the two. Insufflation of the gastric lumen has also been found to be successful in maintaining the lumen in close proximity of the abdominal wall in some procedures. This procedure is also applicable to jejunostomy or gastro-jejunostomy as well as the gastrostomy procedure referred to above. Similar procedures may also be applicable or desirable for other catheter tubes such as peritoneal drainage tubes.
After the wall of the lumen is anchored, a needle is inserted into the patient in the area in the appropriate location. Additionally, a small incision may be made in the skin. An endoscopist will then typically watch through the endoscope as a needle pushes through the patient's skin, then through the abdominal wall, and enters the gastric lumen in the selected area to form a needle tract. A guide wire is passed through the needle into the gastric lumen (e.g., the stomach). The endoscopist will use an endoscopic snare to grasp the guide wire firmly. The snare, passed through the working channel of the endoscope, firmly grabs the guide wire. Both the endoscope and snare are then withdrawn together through the patient's mouth, pulling the guide wire with them. The end of the guide wire that extends out from the patient's mouth is subsequently attached to a PEG tube and the other end of the guide wire remains outside the patient's skin in the abdominal region.
The PEG tube is guided into the patient's mouth (while the endoscope is completely removed from the patient) and pulled into the patient's gastric lumen as the guide wire is pulled from the end that remains outside the patient's skin. Once the PEG tube is in the gastric lumen, it is pulled partially through the gastric and abdominal walls until a bumper of the PEG tube is snug against the gastric mucosa. However, in order for the PEG tube to be pulled partially through the gastric and abdominal walls and skin, the original needle tract must be dilated. This dilation is carried out with conventional dilation devices that employ a tapered dilator at the distal end of the PEG tube so that it dilates the opening as it is pulled through the gastric mucosa. During such dilation, the endoscope is again passed into the patient and subsequently used to visually observe that the bumper of the PEG tube is snug against the gastric mucosa.
In other conventional PEG tube placement procedures, endoscopy is not used at all. Instead, x-ray techniques are used to help select a particularly suitable location in the patient's body (e.g., the stomach) for the introduction of the PEG tube. X-ray is used for guiding the PEG tube placement and for inspecting the PEG tube's final position.
In yet another procedure, known as gastropexy, a needle is used to pierce a patient's abdominal wall to place one or more fasteners in a patient's gastric lumen. A fastener, such as a “T-bar” fastener, carried at or near the tip of the needle is desirably deployed by the needle so that it can be positioned against an inner wall of the gastric lumen. A tensioning suture is connected to the fastener and, at an opposite end of the suture on the outer surface of the patient's body, the suture is desirably also connected to a suture holder, which permits adjustment of the tension on the suture. In this manner, when the suture is tensioned a patient's gastric lumen wall is more closely positioned to the outer surface of the patient's body, and the gastric lumen is stabilized in a position. Usually, at least three and desirably four fasteners are placed in a triangular, square, or diamond-shaped configuration through a patient's skin and into the gastric lumen.
While there are some problems associated with these conventional procedures including an increased risk of esophageal trauma associated with multiple passes of an endoscope into and out of a patient or placement of the PEG in an improper location, one significant problem is related to the additional complications of anchoring the wall of the gastric lumen to the abdomen. It would be desirable to avoid the complications of the additional steps of such a procedure and/or the additional trauma caused by mechanically anchoring (even temporarily) the wall of the gastric lumen to the abdomen. While avoiding these complications may be desirable, suitable devices or procedures are lacking.
Accordingly, there is a need for a device, system and method for placing a non-vascular catheter tube such as a PEG tube in a patient that reduces these risks and trauma and is easy to perform.